Place Gérald-Godin

The square is arranged around Mont-Royal station: avenues run along one side, buses stop nearby, and a municipal cultural center stands at the other edge. Every day, residents of Le Plateau-Mont-Royal cross this space—toward the metro in the morning, back in the evening; at other times they meet here, set up market stalls, and hold city events. The north side is defined by the long brick wall of the building on Rivard Street, so the square remains part of street life rather than a separate park.

The north wall of the building on Rivard Street is laid out like a huge page: three hundred twenty-seven letters were molded from clay, fired, and set into the brickwork. In nineteen ninety-nine, the artists Richard Purdy and François Hébert received a city commission for the square by the metro exit. Instead of a portrait, they placed the poem “Tango de Montréal” here. They wanted to restore the voice of Gérald Godin, whom the city remembered better as a politician.

In nineteen seventy-six, Godin's life revolved around journalism, teaching, and books. He decided to run in Mercier, the provincial electoral district encompassing this part of Le Plateau-Mont-Royal. Robert Bourassa, the incumbent premier of Quebec, had held the seat for ten years and expected to retain both his legislative seat and leadership of the government. Godin was a newcomer without a comparable campaign organization. He went door to door and spoke with voters for hours; his familiarity with the district became his main advantage.

On November fifteenth, Godin received fifty-one percent of the vote, Bourassa thirty-seven. The premier lost his legislative seat, left the party leadership four days later, and returned to teaching for several years. Mercier residents re-elected Godin three more times. He represented the district until nineteen ninety-four, and in government he worked on immigration and relations among cultural communities.

During those years, he wrote “Tango de Montréal.” In the poem, elderly immigrants of different nationalities ride to work on the Montreal Metro, and the poet asks whether the city's worn-out heart continues to beat because of them. Here, the text literally ended up on the path of its heroes: the square is arranged around Mont-Royal station, between the avenue, bus stops, and the House of Culture. People pass through it on their way to work and home; they meet here and hold street markets and cultural events.

Godin died in nineteen ninety-four. Two years later, city officials gave his name to the square in the district he had represented for eighteen years. Three years after that, Purdy and Hébert fixed his poem onto the north wall. There is no portrait of Godin here: his surname remains in the square's name, and his voice in three hundred twenty-seven fired bricks across from the metro.